How to tune-up a computer using Windows XP Home Edition®.

Dear Tech Guy,

I have a computer running Windows XP Home Edition®. I read in a school journal article that sometimes you should give your computer a "tune-up," but it didn’t say how to go about this. Is this something I can do from within Windows, or do I need to purchase some other software programs?

To begin, it is suggested that you start by updating Windows itself. This can easily be done if you have an online connection. Many of the available updates are security related, which will help to reduce vulnerabilities in the operating system. Select: Start >> All Programs >> Windows Update. (This is usually located above the top separation bar.) This will open the Microsoft Windows® Update Web page in your browser. Follow the prompts and make selections in order to complete the update. It is highly recommended that you choose at least the high-priority updates. (You may have to restart your computer for some of the updates to take affect.)

After the updates are installed, you may want to run the CheckDisk program (This is called ScanDisk in earlier versions of Windows®). The CheckDisk utility verifies the logical integrity of the file system. In Windows, there are usually several ways to access the same operation. One way to run this program is to open: My Computer >> right-click your hard drive (usually the C drive) then select: Properties >> Tools >> Check Now (under the Error-checking section) >> then select both options under the Check Disk options, and click Start. This schedules the program to run the next time you start your computer.

Once you restart your computer and the CheckDisk program is completed, run the Disk Cleanup utility. This cleans a lot of unnecessary files from your system. Select: Start >> All Programs >> Accessories >> System Tools >> Disk Cleanup. This will calculate how much space you can free on your hard drive. Select the options that you want under the Files to delete area, and then click OK.

After cleaning the hard drive of needless files, it is a good idea to run the Disk Defragmenter program. This utility puts the data on your hard drive in a more contiguous order, which makes it easier and quicker to access. Activate this program by selecting: Start >> All Programs >> Accessories >> System Tools >> Disk Defragmenter. Select your hard drive (usually C) from the volume area, and then click the Defragment button found below. If you have more than one hard drive in your computer, they will usually be listed as well, and you can also defrag them by repeating the process listed above while selecting that drive letter.

This concludes the tune-up process utilizing the basic utilities that are provided with Microsoft Windows®. It is recommended to follow this procedure with some other simple (and some free) third party programs, which we will discuss next week.

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